Talk About Literature in Kansas is a program for every Kansan who loves to read and discuss good books. For
more information about TALK and other programs for libraries, museums, and non-profit groups, contact the
Kansas Humanities Council
11112 SW 6th Ave., Suite 210
Topeka KS 66603-3895
785/357-0359
info@kansashumanities.org • www.kansashumanities.org
Contemporary Immigration
It’s become a truism that America is a nation of immigrants. But that simple phrase disguises a
complex interaction of push-pull forces that has brought a shifting range of immigrants to American
shores over time. Forces pushing immigration – like wars, persecution, or economic hardship – have
changed location, moving away from continental Europe after the mid-20th century.
From World
War II and the Holocaust forward to campaigns of ethnic cleansing in the Balkans and genocide in
Rwanda or Sudan, disasters always produce new waves of immigrants looking for refuge.
If the
principal attractions of America, economic opportunity and promises of freedom, have remained
generally constant, the specifics have certainly changed, reflecting the economies and social
structures of the nation.
Each new wave of immigration brings new traditions, new foodways, new styles, new artistic
traditions, and new histories into the complex mosaic of American life.
Use of salsa, it has been
widely reported, now outpaces consumption of ketchup; Latin American telenovelas have inspired
American network television shows; mosques are among the fastest growing religious communities in
America; and West Indian musical styles like reggae and ska have hugely influenced American
popular musical styles.
Changes in recent years to immigration patterns have even created new
stereotypes, like the Indian hotelier or the Korean convenience store owner (which, like earlier ethnic
stereotypes, the Chinese laundryman or the Italian gangster, are rooted in partial truths about
immigrant labor).
New immigration has deeply enriched the range of American literature, as the
works in this series show.
Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat (1994)
Sophie, a young girl at the outset of Danticat’s novel, makes the difficult transition from life in
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rural Haiti in the house of her aunt to an impoverished existence with her mother in New York.
When reunited with her mother, she discovers the truth of her own birth: that she is the product of
rape, and that her mother still has nightmares about her assailant. Sexual trauma remains a central
motif as the book leaps ahead to Sophie’s coming of age and the difficult path toward familial
reconciliation. “I come from a place where breath, eyes, and memory are one,” Sophie declares near
the conclusion of the novel, as she comes to terms with that dark heritage. 236 pp.
Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros (2002)
The caramelo of the title refers to the unfinished caramelo rebozo, an exquisite if unfinished
shawl that is Soledad’s sole memento of her dead mother. But the title plays as well on color and
ideas of racial lines, since the novel also reveals the family secret about Lala’s darker skinned halfsister. Beginning with family trips from Chicago to Mexico in the early 1960s, circling back to stories
set in the era of the Mexican Civil War, Cisneros weaves a dense tapestry of family, identity, and
immigration in a fancifully postmodern style incorporating footnotes and characters who argue with
the narrator. It’s rich, sweet storytelling. 434 pp.
Harbor by Lorraine Adams (2004)
Aziz, the Algerian protagonist of Adams’s novel, arrives in America as a stowaway aboard a
tanker, swimming to shore in Boston harbor without money, English, or much of anything but the
phone number of a shady cousin, Rafik. But one illegality leads to another in the underground world
of illegal Arab immigrants Aziz enters. Vignettes sketch the horrific violence of his homeland and the
reasons for his flight. And, in the context of a post-9/11 world, different forms of illegality shade into
each other as Aziz finds himself caught in the web of an anti-terrorism investigation. Adams’s first
novel unveils the complex layers of meaning buried in the phrase “illegal immigration.” 292 pp.
Typical American by Gish Jen (1992)
Chinese immigrants Yifeng (also known as Ralph), Theresa, and Helen find themselves trapped in
America by the triumph of the Communist Revolution back home. The three find their ways into lives
that work in the new land they never quite admit they are stuck with, following patterns of work and
family that fit New World models far more closely than those of their homeland.
become
“typical Americans.”
The three do
Jen follows the intertwined course of the three Chinese-Americans-
despite-themselves with a light touch, employing a narrative voice strong on both empathy and
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humor. 296 pp.
Suggestions for Further Reading
Historical background:
Richard Alba and Victor Nee, Remaking the American Mainstream: Assimilation and Contemporary
Immigration (2005)
Nancy Foner, In A New Land: A Comparative View of Immigration (2005)
Alejandro Portes and Ruben Rumbaut, Immigrant America (3d ed. 2006)
Ellis Island website at www.ellisisland.org
Library of Congress’s American Memory website on immigration at
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/introduction.html
NPR series “Immigration in America” (2004) at www.npr.org/news/specials/polls/2004/immigration/
Selected recent literature of contemporary immigrants (arranged by place of origin):
Afghan: Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner (2003)
Antiguan: Jamaica Kincaid, Lucy (1991)
Arabic: Pauline Kaldas and Khaled Mattawa, eds., Dinarzad’s Children: An Anthology of
Contemporary Arab-American Fiction (2004)
Asian generally: Jessica Hagedorn, ed., Charlie Chan Is Dead: An Anthology of Contemporary Asian
American Fiction (1993)
Chinese: Lan Samantha Chang, Hunger (1998); Inheritance (2004)
Gish Jen, Mona in the Promised Land (1996); Who’s Irish? (2000); Love Wife (2004)
Fae Myenne Ng, Bone (1993)
Amy Tan, Joy Luck Club (1989); Kitchen God’s Wife (1992); Hundred Secret Senses (1995); Bonesetter’s
Daughter (2001); The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life (2003)
Cuban: Reinaldo Arenas, Before Night Falls: A Memoir (1993)
Cristina Garcia, Dreaming in Cuban (1992); Aguero Sisters (1997); Monkey Hunting (2004)
Oscar Hijuelos, Our House in the Last World (1983); The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (1989); The
Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O’Briten (1992); Empress of the Splendid Season (1999)
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Dominican: Julia Alvarez, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (1992); In the Name of Salome
(2001); Saving the World (2006)
Junot Daz, Drown (1996)
Filipino: Jessica Hagedorn, Gangster of Love (1996); Danger and Beauty (2002)
Bienvenidos Santos, Scent of Apples (1997)
Haitian: Edwidge Danticat, Krik? Krak! (1996); The Dew Breaker (2004)
Edwidge Danticat, ed., The Butterfly’s Way: Voices from the Haitian Dyaspora in the United States
(2001)
Hmong: Sucheng Chan, Hmong Means Free: Life in Laos and America (1994)
Indian: Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpretor of Maladies (1999); The Namesake (2004)
Bharati Muckerjee, The Middleman and Other Stories (1988); Jasmine (1989); Desirable Daughters
(2002); Tree Bride (2004)
Iranian: Firoozeh Dumas, Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America (2003)
Azadeh Moaveni, Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing up Iranian in America and American in Iran
(2005)
Japanese: David Mas Masumoto, Harvest Son: Planting Roots in American Soil (1998)
Hisaye Yamamoto, Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories (1997)
Jordanian: Diana Abu-Jaber, Arabian Jazz (1994); The Language of Baklava: A Memoir (2005)
Korean: Chang Rae-Lee, Native Speaker (1996); A Gesture Life (1999)
Lebanese: Rabih Alameddine, Koolaids (1998)
Joseph Geha, Through and Through: Toledo Stories (1990)
Mexican: Gloria Anzaldua, La Frontera/Borderlands (1999)
Ana Castillo, The Mixquiahuala Letters (1992); So Far from God (1993); Sapogonia (1994); Massacre of
the Dreamers: Essays on Xicanisma (1995); Loverboys: Stories (1996); Peel My Love Like an Onion
(1999)
Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street (1991); Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories
(1992)
Palestinian: Laila Halaby, West of the Jordan (2003)
Puerto Rican: Ernesto Quinonez, Bodega Dreams (2000)
Esmeralda Santiago, When I Was Puerto Rican (1994)
Post-Soviet: Gary Shteyngart, The Russian Debutante’s Handbook (2003); Absurdistan (2006)
Sudanese: Dave Eggers and Valentine Achak Deng, What Is the What (2006)
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Vietnamese: Lan Cao, Monkey Bridge (1997)
Thi Diem Thuy Le, The Gangster We Are All Looking For (2003)
Aimee Phan, We Should Never Meet (2004)
Post-Yugoslavian: Aleksander Hemon, The Question of Bruno (2000); Nowhere Man (2004)